Review of In Bruges (2008) by Josh H — 01 Feb 2013

After seeing Martin McDonagh's Seven Psychopaths and now In Bruges, I can safely conclude that he is one of the best screenwriters and filmmakers in modern cinema. The screenplay is one of the best screenplays I've had the pleasure of experiencing, and films like this make me deeply appreciate a well-written screenplay.

Every little thing that happens in the film ends up being important later on, the dialogue is simply amazing, and the characters (despite being seemingly bad people) turn out to be extremely likeable and almost understandable.

McDonagh also makes direct references to films in general in the narrative, in a similar (if not as comlex) fashion as he did in Seven Psychopaths. McDonagh is an extremely smart genius, and he enjoys reminding the viewers of what type of medium (film) they're experiencing.

It's simply magical filmmaking, and I can't stress this enough. I love the balance of comedy and drama here as well: there were times where I was grinning in amusement and then switched to being ultra serious within a matter of seconds, and this happened on more than one occasion.

The acting is also very high in quality: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, and Ralph Fiennes turn in award-worthy performances because they handle McDonagh's constant switches in tone skillfully and swiftly.

Unfortunately, In Bruges comes packaged with a flaw or two: I did not like the fact that a certain element of the ending was left ambiguous. I also felt that if Fiennes' character Harry had been given more screen-time, McDonagh would have been able to pull an even stronger emotional response from me in the end.

.. I rarely ever think that a film should be longer, for any reason, but In Bruges is one of those films. Other than that one quarrel I had with the ending, the final act was incredible and probably the best segment of the film.

This film is nearly as good as McDonagh's succeeding film Seven Psychopaths and I have an utterly high appreciation for artists like him and films like In Bruges. Final Score: 8.5.